Phoenix Burning: March 2005

Happy Phoebe

A closer look at the mice.

Here's Phoebe with the mouse. Of course, Mom missed all this talking with a shop owner about making jewelry. But Dad to the rescue with photos!

You just have to see photos to believe this one. Yes, that's a dog with a cat on its back...and the cat has three mice on its back. Phoebe was in heaven.

Benson and Bisbee

Onward and eastward.

We traveled south from Tucson to Benson, AZ. Benson doesn't have a whole lot to recommend it, but the San Pedro RV Park was a welcome stop for we stinking travelers. Full hook-ups for $18. We showered, bathed and did our laundry. From there we wanted to go south the San Pedro Riparian Preserve, a birding mecca. We did, only to discover that though San Pedro is BLM land, there is no free camping right around there. We decided for a bit of luxury and are staying at a nearby RV park for the week. Full hookups and wireless internet :) I bought a "Passport" membership, a membership that gives you a 50% discount at all member parks. That makes this stay only $12/day--not shabby. And the park is really nice.

We went to Bisbee today, a little bohemian mecca in the midst of cowboy country. More on that trip soon :)

Now, if that isn't a happy face, what is?

Happy 2nd birthday Phoebe! Here she is in her Easter dress, eating her "birthday cake"--in this case a Chocolate mousse cheesecake. Of course, she was allowed to smear it all over her face, but I saved the dress.

While in Tucson, we visited the Arizona-Sonora desert museum. Phoebe loved the museum--its more like a cross between a zoo and a botanical garden. She loved this kestrel, but took awhile to warm up to it.

Ironwood National Monument isn't exactly pristine, but we did have great fun looking at and eventually catching this Western patch-nose snake. It retreated into a palo verde. We originallly saw it excavating a burrow, according to the reptile book, likely looking for reptile eggs to eat.

Rescuing "Woody"

One of the more interesting episodes that occured during our stay in Ironwood was the rescuing of "Woody" (aka Ironwood) the dog. Some idiot who has eternally bad karma dumped their dog 15 miles from the nearest house or water. Ok. I'm not sure that's the story, I'll be generous and imagine an owner that takes their dog out camping with no collar on and lets them wander the desert with coyotes.

Woody wouldn't come anywhere near us when we arrived. The next day, I put out water figuring at least he'd get that if we weren't around. He drank that and the next night came close enough to eat some chuck roast Greg threw to him (not bad grub for a desert dog). By the next day, he came right up and took food from Greg's hand. We fed the poor thing about every leftover we had in our fridge and hoped he didn't throw it all up. The next morning, he was "ours", coming into camp in the morning looking for breakfast. The poor dog had cracked pads and was limping.

Phoebe was delighted when she woke up and Woody was so gentle and nice to her, taking 'goldfish crackers' from her and letting her pet him. I can't believe anyone would just dump that dog!

We groomed him a bit and decided to take him into the humane society. Although they aren't no-kill, they said if the dog was nice they have no time limits. We loaded him into the truck and took him in. Needless to say, saying bye was hard, but I have to say that Tucson's humane society is one of the nicer facilities I've seen--and lots of nice looking people there to adopt dogs.

We still keep finding hair and missing our Woody.

Phoebe loves houses--this is a little house she found in Trail Dust Town. Of course, no play session in a "house" would be complete without your duck, loon, and swamp sparrow friends.

I think Phoebe is having fun! Here she is in the "Chinatown" part of Trail Dust Town, a tourist destination in Tucson.

Camping in smuggler territory

Next we headed towards Tucson. We stopped for a night at Picacho Peak state park--a lovely little campground right off Highway 10. For $12/night you can get a spot with no hook-ups, but access to water, a dump station, and a really nice clean bathroom complete with showers. Quite luxurious. If you want electricity, there are spots for $20/night. The park itself is pretty. The campground is situated under Picacho Peak in saguaro, palo verde desert and at this time of the year is all in bloom. the bird life is amazing--I added some more new birds to my life list--a black-tailed gnatcatcher and ash-throated flycatcher.

Despite how nice it was having showers, we decided to head down the road looking for cheaper (i.e. free) accommodations. If we spend less to live, we can spend more on seeing things (entrance fees and so forth). We decided to try Ironwood National Monument, BLM land just northwest of Tucson. Ironwood is curiously absent from most tourist information--we just happened across it looking on the Go-Arizona pages (www.go-arizona.com). I can understand why once getting here--although the road is freshly graded, you can't get an RV very far into the park. As it was, we wre lucky to have a fifth wheel, we almost took off our spare tire in the first steep wash the road crosses. we pulled in just inside the "park"--in quotes because there is no marked entrance, no marked "BLM" land--we are just guessing we are actually in the BLM area.

Ironwood National Monument is only accessible through two main routes--from the north off Hwy 10 from Red Rock Road, and from the east via Avra Valley Road to Silverbell Road. The main road circles a huge active mining operation, it appears that they are busy removing a mountain, for what purpose I haven't discovered. However, having said that--the actual desert is beautiful, made even more so by the fact that there are no people here. We hear about 5 cars pass during the entire day.

I have to tell the funny story of our arrival, even though it will freak out my family a bit. We pulled into our chosen campsite, a narrow pullout just past the Silverbell Road turnoff. We were a bit disturbed that a huge black helicopter marked "POLICE" was circling over our heads. We worriedly discussed what they might be looking for--fugitives? Illegal aliens? Was President Bush driving through? (don't laugh--he was in Tucson that day--who knows?) Soon enough, driving down the road comes an overloaded pickup truck with a flat tire absolutely full of Mexicans. Given the proximity to the border, one assumes illegal mexicans. Sure enough, as soon as they passes, the helicopter followed them out. Hmmm...should we stay? Hey--at least the fugitives are closely watched around here!

The next day a BLM ranger came by. He said it was safe to camp there, but there were smugglers using the road to take Mexican's back in. I still haven't figured out why they are smuggling Mexican's into Mexico? Please do fill me in if you know!

The next day we visited the Arizon-Sonora Desert museum. Phoebe and her parents had a blast. The museum boasts having representatives of all the reptiles, amphibians, and mammals that you can find in the Sonoran desert--and most of the birds and plants. They have an enormous grounds in the Western part of Saguaro National Park. Winding walkways take you through botanical gardens filled with Sonoran desert plants and enclosures with wildlife and bird aviaries. The highlight for me was seeing a wild Spiny-tailed iguana sunning on a rock in the grounds. These iguanas are huge lizards--see the photo of the man taking a photo of the big boy we were stalking.

Greg found a climbing partner for the next day, so Phoebe and I were on our own--we spent the day in and around Tucson, visiting the creek at Molina Vista point, then into town to Bookman's, a huge used bookstore, and "Trail Dust Town", touristy reproduction old town that was deserted when we arrived, presumably because all the features they advertise--a carousel, a stream train ride, etc were closed for the winter. Nevertheless, we had a blast, eating at a posh restaurant and playing in "Chinatown."

Finally, we found her another "Beach". Since San Diego, "beach" is one of Phoebe's favorite words. Anything near water is a beach. Here she is playing in the water in Molino Canyon, Tucson.

Saying goodbye to Yuma

We've been quite busy since leaving San Diego. Greg, Phoebe and I returned to Yuma for a last visit. We stayed a bit longer than intended (the place is a doldrum that we fall into and can't get out of ;) --not that I don't enjoy it there. We made a doctors appt for Phoebe and Greg took on the adventure of going to a dentist in Mexico. Algodones has quite a "dentists row"--a strip of dental offices all trying to grab a bit of the money from across the border. Its hard to pass up--US trained dentists that cost $25 for a cleaning appt! Greg hadn't gone to the dentist in far too long, but was fine--just the cleaning and a recommendation that he get his fillings replaced.

The highlight of the weeks in Yuma for me was adding several "lifer" birds to my life list--I found a Gila woodpecker nest just down the street in a saguaro and saw my first Costa's hummingbird, a beautiful little bird with a violet throat patch. The Costa's was up close and personal--having landed about a foot and a half from my head. I also found a Common ground dove nest and saw the doves for the first time. Greg and I laughed because we had been hoping to see more than just Mourning doves--there are several species of doves common to southern AZ, but thus far we had just seen mourning dove's. We must not have been looking close enough because once I saw the common ground dove, it seemed like they were everywhere around Yuma.